China has announced that it will not be the force it was in Beijing when it competes at the London Olympics in three years' time.

Speaking at a meeting of the advisory body to China's parliament, the deputy sports minister, Cui Dalin, claimed that, while beating the United States at their home Olympics was "a historical breakthrough" any such repeat in the British capital would be extremely unlikely as the country will be focusing resources on improving other sporting areas.

"We won 51 gold and a total 100 medals to rank top at the Beijing Olympics, which was a historic breakthrough," said Cui. "After this great success, how Chinese competitive sports should develop in the future and what we should do for the London Olympics has become the question.

"Are we still able to simply pursue an increase in the gold medal number? Obviously, that's impossible and not pragmatic. We can't relax and rest on our previous achievements. We always have to focus on our defects."

Cui does have something of a reputation for underplaying his hand when it comes to keeping his country's sporting expectations in check and he frequently denied that China would better the United States in Beijing. However, the deputy sports minister added that other priorities and the fact that China were no longer playing at home, would see a likely dip in his country's forthcoming performance in London 2012.

"London is not Beijing, we are no longer competing on home soil," he said. "How could a country that wins zero gold medals in the 47 events of track and field be called a strong power in sports? How could a country with its football as bad as China's be called a strong power in sports? Our target for 2012 is to fight to improve the athletics, swimming and three big balls [football, basketball, volleyball] while maintaining a certain number of golds."

Zhou Jihong, the head coach of China's diving team, concurred with Cui's pragmatic view of China's prospects in strong sports such as her own.

"It would be extremely difficult for us to do in London the same as at the Beijing Games, as we already took seven of eight golds. Our competitors have been improving, and there are already many strong foreign divers that are able to challenge us."